Reframing Climate Change: Humans are at the center of the Climatextinction

The Climate is changing. And humans are the ones making it happen. Anybody who thinks otherwise is wrong. And there is no problem in being wrong, as long as your biased opinion does not affect the future of everyone else. Even though there is a consensus among scientists on this environmental destruction, in 2016, only 27% of Americans believed that to be the case. And it goes down to 13% when we take only the “Conservative Republicans” (Check my other post: America is polarized on the issues). It’s nice to ask citizens what they think, but does anybody show them the data before questioning them? If I ask you how many gummies are in the hand I am hiding from you, would you acknowledge that your answer would be a guess? Giving your opinion on an unknown subject — just like Climate Change — is also a guess. In the case of the Climate Change consensus, there is no scientific gibberish to read, just to count the scientists for and the ones against. Nothing complicated. And still, public opinion is not accepting a fact to be true. Should we all die because of the lack of knowledge of some individuals? Do you question the science when you put gas in your car? No, because it does whatever you want and you do not (think you) need to understand how. Healthcare is now a major concern for Americans. When you’ll be diagnosed with cancer by one doctor, you might shout BS, but when 10 doctors will come up with the same diagnosis, you’ll think otherwise. You’ll understand that you need to act if you want to live longer. That’s exactly the same thing with the Environmental destruction we are doing. It’s time to act. And fast.

The problem is that the Deniers and the Alarmists are more vocal about their stands than the actual scientists. All the misinformation that is out there is making it hard to have citizens focus on the real issue. We cannot deny that the Climate Change alarmists allow the Deniers to prevail. We have to stop crying wolf when there is no clear data supporting our claim. We cannot pick and choose when we base our judgments on science and when we use hunches to prove a point. This is counter productive. After Katrina, every Alarmist was expecting this kind of storm would spread like the plague. We had to wait 12 years to have an equivalent one. The data shows that the number of Hurricanes have not increased since 1850. Neither has their intensity. The number of Tornados has not increased since the 1950 neither, according to the data (source: Energy for future presidents — book). Don’t blame the climate for Climate Change. You cannot pick and choose what facts you believe in just to prove your point. This is not helping the conversion of the Doubters. This is just like any other issue when we know we’re right. The point is to bring the most with us. Not to alienate. We need to explain rather than blame and point fingers. Most people who are not trusting the data on climate change do so because they trust their leaders, whether they are political, religious or “journalistic” ones. We need to shame the leaders who are not accepting the facts. Even the Pope acknowledges that we need to do something about the Climate. Leaders have to take their responsibilities. It is inadmissible that a US senator can come in a session with a snow bowl to demonstrates that Climate Change is a hoax. That person, who is a devote Christian and whose campaigns are financed by the oil and gas industry (who would have thought?) believes that it is arrogant to think that humans have any power over the climate. Has he ever been to Beijing?When the persons who are supposed to represent you and to know better, or at least to do everything they can to know better, don’t do their job correctly at defending your life, it is a problem.

At the EPA today, since the Climate Change Denier Scott Pruitt has been appointed, it is required to talk about Climate Change or Global Warming with other expressions like “weather extremes” in order to diminish the reality. I opt we do the same thing but to render what is really happening better. Terms like Climate Change or Global Warming are just scientific terms. They do not mean anything to the general public. It does not reflect the reality of what is happening: a human-on-human killing spree. My point is the same as with White Privileges, we need to rethink the marketing behind this. We need to get the whole world with us on this issue. None of these expressions denote a deliberate human action or involvement. We need to put the human in the centre of this Climate Change. We need to remind people that their actions or their non actions are making the situation worse. To me, this is a Climatextinction. And the world has already been able to agree on ways to come together to do our best to delay this Extinction. When there was scientific consensus on the CFCs (chemicals used to be found in refrigerators, ACs, etc.) causing the ozone hole, most countries (197) came together to face this issue and banned progressively the use of these chemicals. And this is what happened again with the Paris Agreement. 200 countries came together to announce a plan to change human behaviour towards the environment. Until Trump decides to leave it. Joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only 3 countries staying out of it. America, as a country, has lost its leadership, but local American governments and the world keeps moving on to reduce the human influence in the Climatextinction.

People do not understand that what humans are doing is mostly affecting themselves. The asteroid which participated in killing the dinosaurs didn’t destroy the Earth. Our actions will not destroy the Earth either, we are just making it inhabitable for us. Some other species will prevail while we might shrink or even disappear. When talking about Climate Change, we need to stop focusing on other animal species — not that it doesn’t matter — but most people do not care about animals other than their pets. We need to make people understand what they are losing because of the Climatextinction. We need to make them understand what their children will lose. The majority of the new emissions will come from the developing world. In the end, they are the ones we need to convince to not follow the path we’ve been taking for the past 150 years. This doesn’t mean we do not need to reduce our own emissions. But if anyone in the major countries of the world, with facts and education available for all, is challenging the authenticity of Human Made Climate Change, how do you expect an Indian or a Russian to care about this issue?

Stop saying the ocean water is rising. Start showing the islands which lost lands because of that rising and the potential illegal immigrants it could bring to America. Stop saying that coal is bad, and start saying that this is where their lung cancer is from, where the mercury in their fish comes from. Stop saying that the ice is melting but start saying that Russia will have a new path to attack the US through the new water ways created. It is proven that humans prefer to change when you show them that their neighbours are doing the change themselves rather than telling them it is a good thing for the Earth. And China is bringing this opportunity to America. The Chinese, which most Americans still consider as poor communists, are making a bigger move on this issue than America. China just announced it will ban the sale of gasoline powered cars in the future. This is a bold move… that America should have taken first. Show Americans that Chinese are making the change and you’ll see that pride that makes America as great as it is coming around. Let’s end this Climatextinction.